Chapter VI

No historical sketch of memory among the ancient Greeks and Romans is complete without some mention of their mnemonic systems. The art of mnemonics seems to have been much in vogue among them. There are frequent allusions to this art in the works of Aristotle, Plato, and other classic writers. Aristotle is reported by some to have written a work upon mnemonics. Every scholar of the classics is familiar with the story that ascribes the invention of the art to Simonides.

The main principles of the ancient mnemonic systems according to Cicero and Quintilian were as follows. The thing to be remembered was localized by the imagination in some definite place—say in a room of a real or imaginary house; and, if necessary, a concrete symbol as vivid as possible was associated with it. This method was used by the Romans as an aid in oratory; and it has been said that the phrases, “_in the first place_,” “_in the second place_,” and the like, originated in this ancient practice.

The ancient systems of mnemonics are inferior to the best modern systems, that, @since@ the days of Pick[50] have been based upon sound psychological principles. But the ancient systems were probably very helpful @to@ eye-minded people. The men with remarkable memories, mentioned by Cicero and other ancient writers very likely owed much to mnemonic aids. It is of special psychological interest to consider the ancient mnemonic devices in the light of such studies as those of Galton upon mental imagery, number forms, and the like.[51] The high estimate that many of the ancients placed upon the mnemonic art, may, perhaps, fairly be taken as evidence that what Galton calls the faculty of visualisation was developed among them. Especially some of the Roman orators seem to have possessed this faculty in a high degree.

Biographical Note of the Author.

I was born at Dunbarton, N.H. on the 3d of Dec. 1855, and am the youngest son of Samuel and Hannah Dane Burnham. I graduated at the High School at Manchester, N.H. in 1875. The next three years I spent in teaching and in study. In 1878 I entered Harvard College, and graduated in the Class of ’82. The following year was spent in teaching in the Preparatory Department of Wittenberg College. The next two years were spent at the State Normal School at Potsdam, N.Y., where my work was the teaching of Latin and Rhetoric. In 1885 I entered the Johns Hopkins University. In this university I have held the positions of Fellow in Philosophy and Fellow by Courtesy. My work has been chiefly under the direction of Prof. G. Stanley Hall and Dr. Richard T. Ely.

William Henry Burnham.

FOOTNOTES:

-----

Footnote 1:

For reference see Carus: Geschichte der Psychologie, pp. 150 & 169.

Footnote 2:

Theophrastus, 45.

Footnote 3:

Theophrastus, 4. Cf. Siebeck: Geschichte der Psychologie. Erste
Abtheilung, p. 150.

Footnote 4:

Phaedrus, 73.

Footnote 5:

Philebus, 34.

Footnote 6:

Jowett’s Translation.

Footnote 7:

For references see Zeller’s Plato and the Older Academy, pp. 126 and
407. Cf. also Siebeck: Geschichte der Psychologie.

Footnote 8:

For the many passages in which the words μνήμη, μνημονεύω, μνημονικος,
μημων μ@ν@ήμων occur in Plato, ¬conf¬ see _Ast_. _Lexicon
Platonicum_, II. pp. 356–357. For ἀναμιμνήσκω and ἀνάμνησις cf. the
same, Vol. I. pp. 151–152.

Footnote 9:

De Memoria et Reminiscentia. For a list of commentaries, see
Hamilton’s edition of Reid’s Works, p. 891.

Footnote 10:

Touch and Taste according to A. reside in the heart. Sight, Sound, and
Smell in the brain, but they are indirectly connected with the heart.

Footnote 11:

De Somno. 1. 454.

ἡ δὲ λεγομένη αἴσθησις ὡς ἐνέργεια κίνησίς τις διὰ τοῦ σώματος τῆς
ψυχῆς ἐστιν.

Footnote 12:

See Wallace; Aristotle’s Psychology, Introduction, pp. 93 & 94.

Footnote 13:

In other words, abstract ideas and the like are reproducible only so
far as they imply images.

Footnote 14:

Quoted from G. H. Lewes’s work on Aristotle, p. 257.

Footnote 15:

Συμβαίνουσι δ’ αἱ ἀναμνήσεις, ἐπειδὴ πέφυκεν ἡ κίνησις ἥδε γενέσθαι
μετὰ τήνδε.
This passage is obscure, but it is generally understood to refer to
the sequence of motions or the corresponding ideas, and this
interpretation agrees with the context. See Hamilton’s Edition of
Reid, pp. 892–893, and Themistius’ paraphrase of De Memoria, quoted by
Hamilton, p. 893–894; also Siebeck, Geschichte der Psychologie, Zweite
Abtheilung, p. 77; Grote’s Aristotle, p. 215; Grant’s Aristotle, p.
170; Wallace’s Aristotle’s Psychology, Introduction, p. 95.

Footnote 16:

Cf. Siebeck, Geschichte der Psychologie, Zweite Abtheilung, p. 77.

Footnote 17:

The Greek is as follows:

διὸ καὶ τὸ ἐφεξῆς θηρεύομεν νοήσαντες ἀπὸ τοῦ νῦν ἢ ἄλλου τινὸς καὶ
αφ’ ὁμοίου, ἢ ἐναντίου, ἢ τοῦ σύνεγγυς διὰ τοῦτο γίνεται ἡ ἀνάμνησις.
αἱ γὰρ κινήσεις τούτων τῶν μὲν αἱ αὐταί, τῶν δ’ ἅμα, τῶν δὲ μέρος
ἔχουσιν ὥστε τὸ λοιπὸν μικρὸν ὃ ἐκινήθη μετ’ ἐκεῖνο.

Footnote 18:

p. 95.

Footnote 19:

@See also@ Grote, Grant, Siebeck, and Zeller: ¬see¬
opp. cit.

Footnote 20:

Hamilton’s emendation is as follows:

After ἢ ἄλλου τινὸς in the passage cited he would supply χρόνου or
καιροῦ.

Footnote 21:

Quoted by Hamilton in his edition of Reid’s Works, p. 901.

Footnote 22:

Hamilton’s translation. Edition of Reid’s Works, Vol. II. p. 909.

Footnote 23:

Grote, op. cit. p.

Footnote 24:

Wallace: Aristotle’s Psychology, p. 41.

Footnote 25:

Siebeck: op. cit., pp. 78–79.

Footnote 26:

Bain: Senses and Intellect, p. 338. 3d American ed.

Footnote 27:

For passages where the words μνήμη, ἀνάμνησις, etc., occur in
Aristotle see the Index in the Berlin edition of Aristotle’s works,
Vol. V. In addition to the works cited see also Waddington-Kastus; De
la psychologie d’Aristote, Chap. XIII.

Footnote 28:

For reference see Siebeck’s Geschichte der Psychologie, p. 209. See
also Ueberweg, History of Philosophy, Vol. I. p. 193.

Footnote 29:

Cf. Stein; Die Erkenntnisstheorie der Stoa: Zeller; Stoics,
Epicureans, and Sceptics: and Ueberweg; Hist. of Philos. loc. cit.

Footnote 30:

Lucretius, IV. 75 seqq.

Footnote 31:

Cicero, De Oratore, II. 86 seq.

Quintilian, Instit. orat. XI. 2 seq.

Footnote 32:

Cf. Enn. IV. L. III. C. XXV. XXX and L. VI.

Footnote 33:

Cf. Siebeck: Geschichte der Psychologie, II. p. 314 seq.

Footnote 34:

The central sense or sensorium, however, according to Augustine is
located in the brain, not in the heart as in Aristotle’s psychology.

Footnote 35:

De Trin. L. XIV. C. VII. See also Ferraz,—Psych. de St. Augustin,
2^{nd} ed.

Footnote 36:

Augustine does not mean to limit what follows to mathematical truths,
but according to @his@ psychology the same would be true of
anything that we are liable to forget.

Footnote 37:

De Musica, L. VI. C. IV.

Footnote 38:

Conf. L. X. C. XIX. Pusey’s translation.

Footnote 39:

Conf. L. X. C. VIII.

Footnote 40:

Conf. L. X. C. IX. sqq.

Footnote 41:

Ferraz.—Psych. de St. Augustin, p. 178. Cf. also De Trin. L. XV. C.
XXI. XXII. XXIII. and L. XI. C. VII. and VIII.

Footnote 42:

De Trin. L. XI. C. VIII. Pusey’s translation.

Footnote 43:

De Trin. L. XI. C. VII. Pusey’s translation.

Footnote 44:

De Trin., L. XII. 15.

Footnote 45:

De Gen. ad Litt., L. VII. C. XVIII.

Footnote 46:

Conf., L. X. C. X. and XI.

Footnote 47:

Ferraz, op. cit., p. 192.

Footnote 48:

Epistolae, 27.

Footnote 49:

Nat. Hist., L. VII. C. 24.

Footnote 50:

Cf. his work “On Memory and the Rational Means of Improving it.”
London, 1862.

Footnote 51:

Galton, Enquiry into Human Faculty, p. 83 seq.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES

1. P. 68, added a footnote anchor. 2. Silently corrected typographical errors and variations in spelling. 3. Retained anachronistic, non-standard, and uncertain spellings as printed. 4. Footnotes have been re-indexed using numbers and collected together at the end of the last chapter. 5. Enclosed underlined font in _underscores_. 6. Enclosed inserted text in @at signs@. 7. Enclosed deleted text in ¬not signs¬. 8. Superscripts are denoted by a caret before a single superscript character or a series of superscripted characters enclosed in curly braces, e.g. M^r. or M^{ister}.